Many types of fasteners for clothing are known in the field of garment manufacturing. A common type is the standard hook and eye combination that allows a user to engage a hook from one side of the garment into an eye on the opposite side of the garment. Examples of hook and eye combinations can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 8,186,025 (“Fildan et al.”). Fildan et al describes ornamental arrangements of hook and eye combinations for brassiere back closure. Hook and eye fasteners are generally formed with a plurality of horizontally spaced vertical rows of eyes on an outer or back side of one half of the fastener and a complementary vertical row of hooks on a front or inner face of the other half of the fastener. The hooks engage in the eyes of one of the rows to fasten the two ends together. Generally the hook and eye fasteners are sewn or bonded to an elastic material, but the fastener components that contain the hooks and eyes are generally stiffer than material the fastener components are being attached to, such as a bra or other article of clothing.
The standard hook and eye fastener is effective, but has several drawbacks. The hooks are generally metallic and hard, and can dig into the wearer. The hooks can get caught on other articles of clothing while being laundered. Additionally, the known fasteners can often be bulky, allowing them to be seen underneath tight clothing. This creates an unattractive and unsightly bump or bulge.
Furthermore, longitudinal stress applied to the opposing ends of the garment containing the fasteners can cause the engaged fastener to curl, increasing the bump visible at the back of the wearer. Curling deformation increases with tension and makes the unattractive bump larger.
Moreover, manufacture of the hook and eye fasteners often involves several diverse steps that can lead to increases in cost, time and labor. Typically the fasteners are stitched together, either by machines or by hand, and it is difficult to provide stitching that perfectly matches the textile elements of the hook and eye fastener and the garment to which it is attached. This often leads to contrasts between the fastener and the rest of the article of clothing. Further, these contrasts can become exacerbated after continued use and washing.
One means for eliminating some of the above-described defects is a hook and eye tape in which the hooks and eyes are attached to a thin tape fabric materials, and the thin tape fabric materials are joined to the back cloth by thermal welding using a thermal adhesive film without sewing. This results in the sewing thread not appearing on the outer surface of the hook and eye tape, providing an improved appearance with less stiffness (see, for example, Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 3104261).
U.S. Pat. No. 7,722,433 (“Utaka”) describes a slim, comfortable and fashionable fastening system for brasseries and other types of clothing. The system described in Utaka is simple and compatible with many type of clothing, but it requires thermofilm materials that can result in hard inflexible fasteners. Additionally, the system disclosed in Utaka does not provide a recessed cavity in which the eye component of the fastener is located, which provides additional slimness and flushness of the fastener of the present invention.